CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The waves, sand and a tan: you can find all that and more at our beaches. Basking in the sun can sometimes feel really relaxing, but doctors want to remind beachgoers there can be too much of a good thing.
“The thing we worry about long-term is if you have a lot of exposure to sun burns you can have a higher risk of getting skin cancer and things like that,” said Emergency Medicine Doctor at CHRISTUS Spohn Chris Durand.
We all know the key in preventing those sunburns and eventually skin cancer is sunscreen.
“Making sure you put on sunscreen at least SPF 30 about 15 to 20 minutes before you go outside,” said Durand.
A bad burn for some can mean a trip to the emergency room. To prevent that from happening, Durand suggests wearing a hat or light woven clothes to help prevent those sunburns.
“If it’s really bad, you’d have to come in and get pain control and fluid, but for the most part you’re able to take care of these at home they get better on their own,” said Dr. Durand.
Aside from the sun, you’ll want to pay close attention to venomous sea life.
“If you encounter a jellyfish and you get stung the first thing you should do is try to remove the tentacles from your skin,” said Emergency Room Doctor at CHRISTUS Spohn Andrew Crutchfield.
After removing the tentacles you’ll want to treat the sting. The first think doctors recommend is submerging the sting in warm water.
“You can do vinegar for certain jellyfish stings," said Crutchfield.
Vinegar may work for jellyfish but there’s another venomous sea creature we’ve seen a lot of recently in which vinegar won’t help.
“The Portuguese man o war sting is gonna be more severe and again if you end up using vinegar on it, it would cause worsening pain as opposed to improvement of your pain,” said Dr. Crutchfield.
So, when it comes to the Portuguese man o war, there’s only one thing you can do to lessen the sting and it’s not warm urine. Dr. Crutchfield says water will work just fine.
“You wanna stick with warm water immersions, watch it over the next few hours,” said Dr. Crutchfield. “People talk about using urine, there’s no science behind that.”
After treating your stings keep a close eye on them and if you see they’re getting worse, head over to the nearest ER.
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